Q. Iam using WIN95 on a new system, it locks up and when I reboot, my partitions and my whole hard drive is wiped out. This has happened twice. I thought it was a virus the first time so I installed Norton anti-virus and did periodic scandisks. Is it a bad drive or what? Please HELP!!

A.
Power mishaps have been know to alter partition tables... You should also check
the surface of the drive with
wddiag.exe. It is in the
Drives Section
on our web site. It's possible that the begining of your drive is damaged.
As far as that "error" in fdisk indicating that your partitions are gone,
quite often it is only the partition "pointers" that are gone. Various mishaps in code
can cause this as well as viruses. Try fdisk/mbr. This will try to rebuild the
pointers. Also, try Norton Disk Dr. It will use a mirrored copy of the FAT to try to bail you out.
WD Diagnostics

Q. My removable hard drive shows up as using 16 bit compatibility mode
in win95 and I cant swap cartridges without re-booting.

A.
If you have any type of removable hard drive on a win95 system ; make sure to
add this line in your system.ini file under the 386enh section.

[386Enh]
RemovableIDE=TRUE

Q.
HELP! I cant seem to access all the fonts on my system, plus when I open up the FONTS folder
there is no "install new fonts option". I know it is supposed to be there.

A.
What you need to do ..is
1. shut down to DOS mode
2. Type 'cd\windows'
3. Type 'attrib +s fonts'
4. Type 'win' OR reboot you system.
You will now have the "install new fonts" option under FILE and you can reinstall your fonts.

Q.
Thanks for your responce. This PLUS! cd is it on the Windows 95 cd or is it
another cd I have to buy. Have you tried or seen this type of networking,
if so can you run the same programs that are on the dial-up server or just
download the files and run them on the home computer.

A.
Yes , You have to buy this extra CD , for this 150k program addition.
MS has you coming and going. It should cost between 30 and 40 when you
buy it. This will allow you to access another computer as if your
were linked on a network. You can run the same programs if they support
networks. ie DOOM, ACAD, others. You can share files and peripheals
ie cd roms and printers, etc.. You can also run programs off of the other system
by mapping their drive.Click start...programs....windows explorer....tools..map network drive
You may also want to 'find computer' in the same area.

If you want to see what is running on the other computer as if you were sitting there. Then you need to use
either
Remotely Possible or
PC ANYWHERE

For this type of approach you will not need the PLUS! Keep in mind that the PLUS and
pc-anywhere solves different types of needs.

Q.
Mouse disappears when returning to windows after executing a dos app.

A.
Must use a dos mouse driver in your autoexec.bat file. ie mouse.com

Q.
Do all versions of the s3 chip conflict with a modem on com4? :(

A.
The Com4 problem was corrected by using an updated driver.

We (S3) do have generic drivers and you are welcome to download from our
"Drivers and Utilities" area in our tech support area.

Due to varying board designs and BIOS modifications that may have been
performed on your board, we first recommend that you contact your
board manufacturer for support before installing generic drivers.
Regards, S3 Support

Q.
I ran out of room on my hard drive, so I bought a bigger one, but what do I do now?

Q.
HELP! I am installing a new IDE hard drive as a slave to an existing one. But I am not sure of how to do this.

A. You will probably be doing one of these three things.
1. Replacing your existing hard drive.
2. adding a second newer hard drive as a slave 'secondardy' to your existing one.
3. Making your new hard drive the Master 'primary' hard drive and attaching your old one as the slave

Regardless, of which you want to do, you will need to do the following for all three cases.

First of all, lets start with finding your existing hard drive and the jumper settings required for a master/slave configuration.
You will have to determine what brand and model of hard drive you currently have. Here are the links to find out your jumper settings
if you no longer have a manual for your hard drive.

Once you find your jumper settings for both your master and slave drives, you will want to print them out or write them down.

Also, you may want to write down the Cylinders/Heads/Sectors.

Now, before you do anything, you need to make a boot disk.

VERY IMPORTANT!

Insert a blank diskette..

At a DOS prompt..Type 'sys a:'

Then copy fdisk.exe, and format.exe and sys.com to the a: drive. (these files are either in c:\dos OR c:\windows\command)

Now, shut down your computer, and turn it off.

We'll call your old hard drive OLD and your new hard drive NEW, (for lack of a better name.)

At this point you must decide which drive will be the master and which one will be the slave.

With your computer off, remove your cover.

Locate your OLD drive, it should be plugged in to a card if it is a 486 or older, OR it will be plugged directly into your motherboard,
if it is a Pentium.

Make sure when looking inside your case and before touching anything, to touch the metal frame frequently to GROUND yourself.

This should discharge any static electricity from your body. STATIC IS VERY VERY BAD for electronics.

Now you may or may not have an available bay for your NEW drive. If you don't then you will end up with only your NEW drive at the end.
of this little ordeal.

Now, locate the jumper info for your NEW drive. Set the jumpers so that the drive is in the MASTER state.

NOTE: some drives need to be set to MASTER WITH SLAVE PRESENT state. The drive or docs will say one or the other.
master OR master with slave.

Locate a place in your case where the NEW drive will be mounted. Mount the NEW drive with the screws provided.

You will probably need to remove your OLD drive to change the jumper setting to SLAVE on it.

If you are keeping your OLD drive then remount it after changing the jumper.

The ribbon cable that went to your old hard drive, should have three connectors on it. One on each end and one in between.

If not, you will need a new cable.

Keeping the one end plugged into either tha card or motherboard, next plug in the NEW drive then plug the OLD drive onto the end of
the cable.

NOTE: the red stripe goes toward the power connector on the drive.

Connect the white power plugs into the hard drives. They are keyed and can only go on one way.

Note: You may need a y splitter to split the power cord. If you dont have enough power plugs. If using a splitter, you would ideally want
to connect one to a hard drive and the other to a floppy or cd rom. This is because a floppy or cd rom are not always running as much as the hard drives.
This just dispenses the power more evenly in your system, I try to only put one power hog on one line out of the power supply ..if possible.
If it is not possible, or to difficult, don't sweat it, and hook up both your drives on the same line.

Touch that case.

OK, drives are plugged in.

Now, turn your computer on.

While it is counting the RAM, press the DELETE key. This will put you into your computers CMOS.

CMOS's look a little different from system to system. But look for something like STANDARD setup or AUTO DETECT HARD DRIVE.

If your system has an AUTO DETECT feature. Then auto detect each drive.

If not then you must go into the STANDARD setup and enter in the Cylinders/Heads/Sectors for each of your drives.

If you have a 486 or older, you will probably also have to set the LBA mode ON and maybe 32 bit access, and maybe

If you have a Pentium, it does it for you. Hopefully!

Now press escape and go to save settings and press a return.

Insert your boot disc that you made earlier.

When your system boots. Type FDISK at the prompt.

Now go CREATE partition, and create your partitions on your NEW drive , This is Drive 1.

Important!!

After creating partitions, you must then SET ACTIVE partition 1 on your NEW drive.

This lets the NEW drive be bootable.

Then ESCAPE out. And reboot. leaving the floppy in the drive.

This time, when you get to the prompt. type DIR C:, you should get the message that the drive is not valid.

Then type FORMAT C: /S

This formats the c drive and install the boot files on it.

You should then format the other drive letters if you made a multiple partitioned hard drive.

DO NOT FORMAT YOUR OLD DRIVE. THIS WILL RESULT IN THE LOSS OF INFORMATION.

That is why I always get a DIR of the drive I am about to format FIRST. When it comes back with the INVALID error, then I know the drive letter is safe to format.

Now you can reboot, and pull the floppy out this time.

Now you two drives should be working together. You can install a new OS on your NEW drive, AND/OR copy the info from your OLD drive.

Determine the drive letter of your OLD drive.

If it is F: for example. ..Type COPY F:\dos\xcopy.* OR COPY F:\windows\command\xcopy.*

Then you could type XCOPY F:\*.* /S

This would then copy all files and subdirectories from your OLD drive.

GOOD LUCK! :)

If you are going to remove your old drive from your system, Then you need to power down again.

Unplug the OLD drive and remove it.

Then you might have to change the jumper on you NEW hard drive to MASTER ONLY.

But you MUST reenter the CMOS and change your drive D to NOT INSTALLED.

Your set!

Things you may need to purchase when upgrading.....Ribbon cable with three connectors on it, Power plug Y adaptor.
And as long as your in there, you may want to buy some compressed air and blow out the dust in your case.

Notes:An IDE device interfaces with your computer via an IDE channel. One IDE channel can support two IDE devices. (ie. hard drives and CD Roms)
Pentiums and even some 486's support two IDE channels. This allows you to have a total of 4 IDE devices. If you need more IDE devices
than your computer can support , you will have to buy an extra IDE controller card from someone like GSI.

If you have two IDE hard drives and a cd rom, you will want to have both IDE hard drives on the same IDE channel. This will let the hard drives
run at their top speed. If you mix a hard drive and a CD Rom on the same IDE channel, the hard drive will not run at its optimum performance.

PARTITIONING your hard drive:

Keep in mind the following information, when deciding how to partition your hard drive:

What this means: A hard drive may be partitioned into smaller logical drives.
ie. You may have one physical hard drive in your system but if partitioned in two you would see drives C: and D:.
In the chart, as the partition size grows ..so does the cluster size.
A cluster is the smallest usable information packet on the drive. An anology , would be to think of clusters as buckets of information.
2K would be like a cup, 8k would be like a bucket, and 32k would be like a garbage can. The size of buckets clusters used depends on
the partition size. What happens is that when you use the garbage can size clusters you end up wasting a lot of space. Even if you have a small file
or a cups worth of water, you must use the garbage can to hold it.

The end result is that you can waste up to 20% of your disk space by having a 1 gig partition.
I would recommend setting the partition sizes to 510 MB, for storage AND performance reasons.

Q.
I am having trouble with intermittent problems with my mouse and/or modem

Q.
I called tech support for my software that wouldn't run and they said I had a 'Hardware conflict'. What is that and what can I do to fix it.

A.
Hardware conflicts can be one of the most common and
elusive computer related problems.
Generally, the following would be the best way to
configure your system and
will also help in troubleshooting.
Lets start off with a couple of basic rules and facts.

The following is a list of the default/standard Com
port address's and Interupts (IRQ)
(IRQ stands for interrupt request. Basically when a
device is trying to communicate
with a computer it sends a signal saying "Hey let me
have some cpu time". This is done
via the IRQ. The IRQ is a way for the computer to
determine which device is asking for CPU
time.)

An important thing to note is that every other port
shares the same IRQ.

Com 1 & Com 3 share IRQ 4
Com 2 & Com 4 share IRQ 3

This is OK as long as two devices do not try to use the
same IRQ at the same time.
When this hardware conflict happens, the computer gets
confused and may or may not work as expected.

An example of this would be :
You are using a mouse on Com1/IRQ4 and you install
a modem on Com3/IRQ4.
If you are using your mouse normally and are not using
your modem you will not see a problem.
If you go into a modem program for downloading and do
not touch your mouse, you will have
no trouble.

But, as soon as you move your mouse while your modem
is being used..
you can and will run into trouble . The reason is that
both of these hardware devices are trying to
communicate with the CPU at the same time over the
same Interrupt.

Here is the way, I set up most systems and it seems to
work the best.

Mouse - Com1/IRQ4
Open - Com2/IRQ3
Open - Com3/IRQ4
Modem - Com4/IRQ3

Printer - IRQ5
Sound Card - IRQ7

Note: before windows, Your printer and sound card could
share the same interrupt
because you typically would not be listening to
something and printing at the same time.
However, now a days , it is common to be printing and
also hear sounds/music.
For More info On Interrupts Click Here!

Q.
I cant seem to find where to setup the drivers for some of my hardware.

A.
Not all driver setup features are under SYSTEM in the control panel. Please also check in the MULTI-MEDIA section under the control panel.
And in the NETWORK section for items related to local networks and dial up networks.

I've tried everything I know to do.
My mouse button sticks when I hold the scroll down. This is a software
problem (not hardware). When I release the button, sometimes the
scroll will continue. Usually, but not always, this is corrected by
giving a slight movement to the mouse. However, sometimes the thing
acts like it is just locked up. This happens any time, connected to
the net or not. I notice that it happens more when working,
with large documents in work. However, I can duplicate it with almost
any document.

Do you have any idea what is happening? I am pretty sure there is no
conflict.

A.
Amazingly enough, almost right after I sent you that email, I found
another page on the internet. It did not give a suggestion which solved
the problem but it did tell me where to look.

It turns out that page suggested setting the bus-throttle in the
display portion of system.ini to on, ... I did it, and the
problem did not improve. However I set the fastmmio & scache to
off while leaving bus-throttle=on (and, put 1 blank line after this
section that seems to have been left out) and my problem has vanished!

Q. I upgraded to Win95 and my old sound blaster compatible card is not working.

A. Many times, with older sound cards and even some newer PNP cards, things don't seem to work right!
In my experience, I have found that by installing the sound cards original dos install program or installing the
DOS utilities for the sound card, that many of the issues can be resolved. I could go into a lengthy discussion about this,
but instead, here is a list of the problems, I have seen eliminated by using this procedure.
1. Mic input not working or volume low
2. Windows keeps recognizing IDE channel on sound card
3. Sound/music in dos games doesn't work
4. Sound/music in windows doesn't work
5. Volume to low in windows
6. Windows can't find game port or it doesn't work
7. CD rom attached to sound card doesn't work

Q.
Using win95 , the line in and mic do not seem to be working on my sound card? What can I do?

A.
On some sound cards, You must use the dos based mixer and setup utils for your sound card. Especially
if adjustments/settings for you sound card are made in your autoexec.bat file. Also make sure the path for you mixer program is called out in your autoexec.

Q.
My sound blaster compatible card sometimes doesnt work
right or doesnt have any sound.
I have installed and reinstalled the drivers for my
sound card. But it still happens.

A.
If you have tried reinstalling the drivers; then try
this approach.
Remove the drivers for your sound card and the card
itself.
Borrow a friends true Sound Blaster Pro or 16.
Install this card in your system.
Let Windows find new hardware and install the proper
drivers.
Remove the SB card and install your compatible card.
Everything should now work.

Q. > I installed a SB compatile sound card and my printer stopped working.
> Seems the SB card picked IRQ 5. I have removed the card, upgraded to
> WIN 95, and still no printer. Nortons 8.0 allows you to control the IRQ's
> on all but the printer. How do I re-establish my IRQ 5 for my printer??
> Thanks

A.

Depending on your motherboard..you may have cmos settings that allow you
to configure your ports and irqs. In your cmos this would be under
"peripheals" if you have that option. Onboard i/o.

Further.. select irq 7 for your sb card. This will be done by jumpers
hopefully. Otherwise you have to run software that sets the irq. This
software comes with your sound card. This software also must be in your
autoexec.bat file and run prior to starting win95.

In windows 95 under settings,control panel, system...go to device
manager...then highlight computer then pick properties on the bottom.
this will show a list of taken irqs or dma or ...

You can also select the port or sound card device and sometimes be able
to change them manually...you have to click off use auto setting.

Also, sometimes (after changing an interrupt for a sound card via an
external program). You may have to remove your current sound driver and
do an 'add hardware' and let win95 find your new hardware and new irq.
Only use this as a last resort tho.